I have way too many things going on at the moment. I will be glad when I'm done with this whole PhD process. It's an awful lot of work to contact all your former professors and do all these exams and such. I would much prefer to never do this process again. Of course, I'm doing it now, so whatever. Like I told Sogee, either one of these schools accepts me or they don't. I can't really do much more to make myself more than what I am, or maybe I should say, "I won't make myself anything other than I am."

It seems to me like a lot of these kinds of applications are made from the perspective of molding a model applicant. I can understand that that's reality and most folks are doing their all to seem attractive. I'm just not that interested in a school that would be duped into anything but having someone because they are there to work hard and figure out what they need. That just might be the way I roll into the personal statement. Either that, or I'll just make myself into a model applicant. Who knows? I guess it just doesn't matter that much.

In any case, I have that to get done, take these exams, and then get all these other things going. The biggest on the list is getting distribution for THE HUMAN WAR. My hope is that dis-tro or an angel investor come through so we can make the movie this year. Time will tell if that's possible...

I was going to write about the next Slipshod album and how I'm reading Ray Bradbury's "Zen and the Art of Writing," but I don't feel like talking about that right now. I'll just end with some more pics of "The Making of Swine Flu."

I will have to finish "...Swine Flu" this week. I'm tired of looking at it half done...

I talked to Bobbie Louise Hawkins yesterday. We're doing Saturday talks during my stay in Boulder. Yesterday we talked about how a talented artist who does more than one art form can bifurcate their own genius, which will hamper them when it comes to being famous/making money.

"Those people who are famous have tunnel vision," Bobbie told me. "They just do one thing absolutely. They've got blinders on."

"Yeah," I said.

"Well," she smiled. "The other interesting thing is that people who do more than one art form find something else inside them."

"What do you mean?"

"They get to figure things out about themselves that those tunnel-vision folks won't."

"That might be true."

"You see those buildings back behind the fence?" she asked me.

"Yup," I said.

"It used to be all these rental properties. So, naturally, all these cats started to come through into the yard because there were no threats for them here. There aren't any dogs or other issues. They like it here."

I nodded my head, "It's nice here."

"Yeah, it is. So there was this one black cat. It was an adolescent. It used to come meandering through that pathway there," Bobbie said and pointed at the path behind me. "And it would just come right up on my lap. He was an uncomfortable lap cat. He was too springy. He would curl around a few times and be off."

Bobbie moved her hand to the side as if she was releasing the cat onto the foilage beside the patio furniture. I tried to envision the cat hopping back and forth on the multileveled tiers that held the rose bushes, azaleas, and overgrown wildflowers that had intermingled through the neglected topsoil.

"One day this gorgeous Monarh butterfly was flying over on those bushes there, and this black cat was up and out of my lap and onto the butterfly. It turned around and these wings were fanned out on either side of its mouth. I bent over and gave him a whack on the butt, and the butterfly went off and got away. It probably died. I don't know, but at least I gave it a chance."

"Sure," I said.

"Then this cat turns, looks at me as if I'd done something horrible, and proceeds to march off terribly angry."

I look over at the path and see the cat proudly stomping off with its feelings hurt in my imagination.

"A couple days of later," Bobbie continued. "I hear this terrible raucaus outside. I rush out and see that black cat carefully making its way down to the far limb of that tree over there," Bobbie explains by pointing out the tree limb. "You see the one arching down over there?"

"I see it."

"Yeah, so this cat is carefully making its way down, and those birds are making a huge commotion. That's when I grab my hose -- and just -- turn it so the cat is properly drenched. I hit him with water for a bit, and then he jumped down into the garden, gave me an awful look, like how dare I, and then off he went again."

The cat moves past my legs without so much as a goodbye.

"About a week goes by, and here comes that black cat again. It's sitting right there on that step over there, when suddenly one of those birds comes whooshing down and whacks it on the back of the head. It immediately looks around stunned, grumbles a bit, and walks off again."

"He probably thought you hit him."

"I was just glad those birds taught him a lesson. Can you imagine? Remembering which cat it was that tried to attack their nest?"

"Mmmm."

Bobbie and I sat in silence after that. I mentioned showing her something on the Internet. We went inside. I showed her some websites. I read her some of Noah Cicero's writing. We talked about a new website for her. Then we called it a day.

I have heard of The Long Tail in virtual marketing circles, but I have had yet to experience the most bizarre. Today on my happy jaunt to Netflix, I was told that I would want to watch the Inauguration of Barrack Obama because of my interest in Brokeback Mountain. I am not sure how those two correlate, or whether they are finally getting something right in this country. Of course, for you disbelievers, I've taken a photo. As I explained to Sogee earlier today, "Nothing beats a picture when you go to court."

I have just started checking out Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategies. I am curious about what they'll produce. You can get a stack of these at THE OBLIQUE STRATEGIES site. I found them via a blog by Daniel Nester. He wrote an article about New York poets. That's how I found him. I don't really care about New York or New York poets - not like that, anyway - but I do care about interesting little tricks that Brian Eno might have used to make him eliminate pressure and get to the creative place. That sounds like fun. I am glad Daniel wrote about this. He seems like a good guy. I hope he gets to forget about New York. Maybe, he'd like to go hiking sometime. A dog might help too. Either that, or you don't have to forget places. I constantly have every place I've ever been on a constant visual stream. Sometimes I'll look down a street and see Seoul, Little Armenia, Hollywood, Sedona, Philly, or New York. I don't feel like anywhere is anywhere. It's me that moves from one place to the next. As my head changes, so does the scenery. A friend once told me that. I thought he was hogshit for saying it, but it turns out he was right. You take you wherever you go.

Our journey has taken us through Philadelphia, St Louis, Kansas City, Sedona, and Los Angeles. Each time we stopped, I would look around and ask whether I could stay here for a time. Boulder ended up being the place we decided to stay until July. I'm just teaching a few classes, writing, and hanging with friends.

Things in the Works

The Slipshod Swingers - 4th Album: I will be working on songs for the 4th album. Panauh will be helping with beats. I am open to anyone else joining in as well. Just send me a basic track if you got it. We is/will work together, gee-money!

The Whopper Strategies Screenplay: Since I have so many talented brothers, there is no reason why we can't rule the world. Paiman and I will be working on a screenplay for his film debut. This is going to be a fun one.

The Human War: We are supposed to shoot in December or April. It really depends on how much money we get by when. I'm guessing April will be rock 'n' roll time.

Past Simple 7: I've collected a bunch of fiction and poems for Jim Goar's virtual magazine. I assume it will hit the Net once I figure out how to post them to his PC-based site. That's going to be a doozer. Hopefully, Jim helps me figure things out.

Publishing Company?/?? - Aquiles Lagrave and I are in talks about setting up a publishing group that would put out a couple print books a year. This is an exciting venture. I guess we just have to come up with a name. That's all you need when you're as cool as us and live in the modern age of publishing. I'm vouching for Fixer Publishing (I rarely name things after a band's song, but Pearl Jam's "The Fixer" is the best song I've heard in a long time; it gets me excited and makes me want to do things.) It's either that or FU Books. I think the latter is a bit too Ed Sanders for my taste. Maybe, iHipster would be better.

Since no posting would be complete without pics of my latest painting, here it is. I think I'll be making a bunch of these. If you want one, I'll be making some and putting them on one of the ebay-type sites. If you want one, just e-mail me and I'll make it special with a rooster and hen and shit drawn under a full moon.

Audi,

PK

PS. I will be posting "The Making of Swine Flu" and apartment pics in a bit for those who've been asking.